Asian Stock Market: Moderately positive as market sentiment improves, oil juggles, BoJ policy in focus

• Asian stocks are moderately positive supported by bumper earnings from US technology stocks.
• Investors are keenly awaiting more developments on US debt-ceiling proposal for further guidance.
• Chinese stocks are showing some strength despite the US said that Chinese cloud computing companies could pose a threat to US security.

Markets in the Asian domain are moderately positive driven by bumper quarterly earnings data from United States technology stocks. A recovery move in the S&P500 futures after a sell-off on Wednesday has improved the risk appetite of the market participants. US equities basket ended Wednesday’s session on a negative note as fears of banking woes after a statement from the First Republic Bank that the US government was reluctant to provide advances despite declining deposits outweighed solid tech earnings.

Investors are keenly awaiting more developments on US debt-ceiling proposal for further guidance. A higher debt-ceiling proposal would force credit rating agencies to downgrade United States’ long-term credit rating, which could have a negative impact on the US Dollar and US equities.

At the press time, Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Hang Seng remains flat, ChinaA50 gained 0.17% and Nifty50 added 0.12%.

Chinese stocks are showing some strength despite U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo saying on Wednesday that Chinese cloud computing companies like Huawei Cloud and Alibaba Cloud could pose a threat to U.S. security and vowed to review a request to add them to an export control list, as reported by Reuters. This may impact the revenue guidance of some Chinese tech companies ahead.

Meanwhile, Japanese equities are choppy ahead of the interest rate decision by the Bank of Japan (BoJ), which is scheduled for Friday. A continuation of ultra-loose monetary policy is expected from BoJ Governor Kazuo Ueda who is making efforts for keeping the inflation rate steadily above 2%.

On the oil front, oil prices failed to capitalize on the higher-than-anticipated drawdown in oil inventories reported by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) for the week ending April 21. Deepening fears of a global slowdown ahead of a fresh leg of the rate hike cycle from Western central banks have weighed heavily on the oil price.